Hairspray (2007 film)

Hairspray is a 2007 musical film based on a Broadway musical, set in 1960sBaltimore. It follows the adventures of plump, cute Tracy Turnblad, an aspiring dancer, when she launches a campaign to racially integrate a local TV dance show. Both the film and the musical are based on the 1988 film of the same name by John Waters.

Velma: Amber! [they break apart] Save your personal life for the camera, sweetie! Ooh, shiny! [sends Amber off to makeup for more powder]

Corny: And now it’s time to say goodbye to our very own fun-lovin’, free-wheelin’ little Brenda. Come on up here, Brenda! [Brenda does so] Brenda will be taking a little leave of absence from the show. How long are you gonna be gone, Brenda?

Brenda: [smiling nervously] Just nine months.

Velma: Detroit sound? What’s that, the cries of people being mugged?

Velma: They’re kids, Corny, that’s why we have to steer them in the white direction.

Corny: The right direction?

Velma: Didn’t I say that?

Corny: Gee, Velma, how do you fire Corny Collins from The Corny Collins Show? [walks off]

Velma: [starts to speak and then pauses, frustrated] They do it all the time on “Lassie”!

Edna: No one is auditioning for anything in this household!

Tracy: But why not? Why not?

Edna: Because dancing is not your future. One day, you’re going to own "Edna’s Occidental Laundry".

Tracy: I don’t want to be a laundress, I want to be famous!

Edna: If you want to be famous, learn how to take blood out of car upholstery; That’s a skill you can take right to the bank!

Wilbur: [to Tracy] This is America, babe, you gotta think big to be big.

Amber: You have to vote for a person, Corny, not one of the Himalayas.

Corny: [tightly] Always the charmer, Amber!

Velma: [after The Dynamites perform “The New Girl in Town”] How dare you pick the same song!

Maybelle: They wrote it.

Mr. Flak: Oh, and Mr. Larkin, perhaps you’d like to share with the rest of the class Patrick Henry’s immortal last words?

Link: [pause] Kiss my ass?

[Amber gasps in shock]

Penny: I’m very pleased and scared to be here.

Maybelle: Now, honey, we got more reason to be scared on your street.

Amber: I’m calling because I have some information about your daughter’s whereabouts.

Edna: What?

Amber: Right now, as we speak, your daughter has entered a hotbed of moral... !urpentine.

Maybelle: [watching Edna walk in] Boy, if we get any more white people in here, this is gonna be a suburb.

Maybelle: Miz Edna, is it? Hi, I mean, you don’t have to rush off, you know.

Edna: Well, I do. I left my iron on.

Maybelle: Oh, your iron? Well, before you go, are you sure you wouldn't like to have a little something to eat? [shows Edna the soul food spread on the table]

Edna: [after a long moment] Is that braised?

Velma Von Tussle: Incredible! I could do a fan dance with a lettuce leaf and you would remain completely obtuse!

Wilbur: Obtuse?

Velma: Yes, obtuse!

Wilbur: I flunked geometry-

Velma: Yeah, well, and biology too, no doubt!

Wilbur: [to a sobbing Edna, who thinks that he has been cheating on her with Velma] Honey, it took me five years to figure out you were flirting! How could I ever?

Link: I was just at home, practising my new twist on “The Twist”, when I overheard it on the news. I can’t believe Tracy savagely bludgeoned an Eagle Scout! That’s just not like her!

Edna: But it’s not true! I was there! He didn't even bleed!

[Seaweed attempts to untie the rope binding Penny]

Penny: Oh, Seaweed, you do care! I was afraid the colors of our skin would keep us apart!

Seaweed: No, but these knots might. [still trying to untie her] Was your mom in the Navy?

Inez: [singing] Seaweed’s got a girlfriend!

Seaweed: Shut up!

Inez: You.

Maybelle: [to Seaweed and Penny] Oh, so this is love? [pauses, then smiles] Well, love is a gift; a lot of people don’t remember that. So you two better brace yourselves for a whole lotta ugly comin’ at you from a never-ending parade of stupid.

Penny: [deadpan] Oh, you've met my mother?

Police Chief: [while on the lookout for Tracy] Velma, I seriously doubt she’ll risk incarceration to win a pageant.

The irony of casting John Travolta (Danny Zuko from Grease) as Edna Turnblad and Michelle Pfeiffer (Stephanie Zinone from Grease 2) as Velma Von Tussle was not lost on anyone, not to mention casting Zac Efron (Troy Bolton from the High School Musical movies).

Nikki Blonsky's film début. She was chosen out of a nationwide talent search and was actually surprised by director/choreographer Adam Shankman via a live video feed at Cold Stone Creamery where she worked.

On an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show Nikki Blonsky revealed that the first thing that John Travolta told her on the set was "Come to Momma!"

Zac Efron (Link Larkin) commuted back and forth from Toronto to Los Angeles to do the soundtrack for High School Musical 2. However, some of the Hairspray soundtrack was recorded in the same studio.

Link's signature "wink-and-click" gesture was something that Zac came up with on his own. Shankman liked it so much that he asked him to do it often on the film. Zac even did it on at least one occasion in High School Musical 2.

It took four hours of makeup daily to put John Travolta into the thirty-pound body suit to play Edna Turnblad.

The hairstyles and bunches for the cast members took an average of three hours to do.

Amanda Bynes (Penny Pingleton) constantly sucked on lollipops. Her father, a dentist, expressed concern about it. She assured him that she was not really eating them when in reality she ate them all.

Several deleted scenes included: Edna being arrested at the protest, Tracy singing "I Can Wait" in the bomb shelter of Penny's basement, and Velma being arrested near the end of "You Can't Stop the Beat". They can all be seen on the DVD.

The song "The New Girl in Town" was originally written for the Broadway show and it was cut during its pre-Broadway run but it was included in the film version. This was done to give Brittany Snow (Amber Von Tussle) a chance to sing and to show Negro Day, something that the other adaptations never did.

The song "You Can't Stop the Beat" was nicknamed "You Can't Stop to Breathe" by the cast due to the song's length, the near-nonstop dancing, and the large amount of words sung.

The songs "It Takes Two" and "Ladies' Choice", both sung by Link, were written for the stage and film respectively, even though the coda for the first song was only heard on film. It can be heard on the CD soundtrack.

Because Zac's voice was blended with Drew Seeley's in High School Musical, he got the chance to show his talents on his own with Hairspray. In High School Musical 2 he was the singing voice of Troy Bolton.

During a break in the filming, John Travolta led the cast in "Summer Loving" and "Greased Lightning" from Grease. Amanda and Zac were so excited that they texted all of their friends. Zac sent pages and pictures to his High School Musical cast mates who were on tour at that time.

The added reprise of "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful" was done at Michelle Pfeiffer's suggestion to replace a scripted scene so that she could have another chance to sing.

For "Run Tell That”, a 1959 GMC school bus was cut into nine pieces to facilitate the dance number. Ironically, the white kids sat at the back of the bus.

The Broadway song "Mama I'm a Big Girl Now" was reluctantly cut from the movie. It was set to be a three-way song involving Tracy, Penny, and Amber with their mothers. The producers felt that it could not be done without a three-way split screen and it would deviate from the movie. The song, however, was recorded featuring Nikki Blonsky, Ricki Lake (the original Tracy in the 1988 film), and Marissa Jaret Winokur from the Broadway show.

The dress that Penny wears in "You Can't Stop the Beat" was made from the curtains in her room. It was homage to Disney films where dresses were made from curtains and blankets.

Just before going out onto the floor in "You Can't Stop the Beat" Edna gives Velma the Batusi. She also does that to a cop in the deleted scenes portion of the DVD.

When Edna says, "If you want to be famous, learn how to take blood out of car upholstery", it is a reference to the Harvey Keitel character. (Although - as this line was used in the Broadway musical - it is most unlikely to be an actual reference - merely coincidental as the Broadway musical was written way before any John Travolta involvement in the 2007 film musical)

John Waters, director and writer of the original Hairspray and executive producer of the 2007 remake, was "the flasher who lives next door".

Mink Stole, Tammy in the 1988 film, was one of the women flashed by John Waters.

Choreographers Anne Fletcher, Zach Woodlee, and Joey Pizzi were the nurse, the teacher in the smoking lounge (whose doughnut Tracy takes), and the Driver's Ed teacher respectively in "I Can Hear the Bells".

Choreographer Jamal Sims was one of the protesters in "I Know Where I've Been". He was the one on Edna's left.

Set director Joey O'Brien was The Corny Collins Show director.

Director/Choreographer Adam Shankman, Ricki Lake (the original Tracy in the 1988 film), and composer Mark Shaiman were the William Morris talent agents. Note Shaiman's out-of-time beard and hair.

Shawn Thompson, Corny Collins in the original 1988 film, was the reporter outside of the studio.